San Giorgio Maggiore

We had a guided tour of the cloisters and library of San Giorgio Maggiore on the island of the same name, just across the lagoon from St. Marks Piazza. It's run by the Cini Foundation, begun by a wealthy Italian after the death of his son in a plane accident. (Apparently he was trying to impress some girl.) He paid for the restoration of the monastery that takes up most of the island. Ira had been previously, but wanted to show me around. The first cloister was done in a very traditional style. The second was by Palladio, and with his typically astute architectural sense, he managed to make the cloister feel much lighter and much more modern than the Laurel Cloister, which had been completed about 100 years previously. He used thinner, doubled columns, which added air and regularity.

The big attraction at the Cini is a big fake, a photographic reproduction of Veronese's "Wedding at Cana" (the site of Jesus' first miracle, that of turning water into wine). For those inclined to the apocryphal, it is also said that this was Jesus' own wedding, but of course, you could be stoned for holding such an opinion.

Napoleon had stolen the original, cut it into five pieces and hauled it off to Paris where you can now view it, restored, in the Louvre. It originally had been at the far wall of the rectory at the monastery and the monks would dine daily while looking at this masterwork. Without the painting, the dining room is just a room, so the Cini Foundation decided to reproduce the painting in a painstaking clone, using high technology. Of course, such an undertaking was hugely controversial. For my taste, I love having the ability to see this work of art in its natural setting. (The image that I have chosen at the top of the blog post is of a musiciam at the wedding. It is said to be Veronese's own self portrait. He painted the other members of the troupe as famous painters of the day as well.)